When used effectively, there is no doubt that marketing technologies help companies to excel in their overall business. This is true for marketing automation, BI, CRM, and other core platforms. However, there seems to be a real challenge in realizing the total cost of ownership of such platforms. While this post will focus on marketing automation, the same is true for other technologies as mentioned above. The number one mistake companies make when evaluating the cost of marketing automation is the fact that they are focusing on technology costs as the main cost element. While technology is an important ingredient in overall costs, it is far from being the main one. Let’s take a look at the main cost elements of marketing automation and how to optimize them. More

Selling IT products to healthcare systems is not an easy task. The infamous 12-24 months sales cycle is in full swing here, with multiple decisions makers and influencers involved, and competition fierce in some specific fields such as Electronic Health Records.

Could Account Based Marketing (ABM) shorten the sales cycle and improve business results for Healthcare IT marketers? More

Growth hacking consultants and marketing agencies – smart folks who write posts about marketing without a budget to promote their growth hacking consulting services or related products. Did you see the words consulting and products? Yep, there’s a budget right there.

CEOs or marketing leaders of small startups – these smart folks are doing a lot of manual/tactical work on their own, and present it as if it’s not a budget. More

Does a high-priced conference ticket promise higher quality of content and better value for money and time? As a busy professional, which events should I spend my time and money on?

Many of my colleagues are facing this question, either as freelancers or in a corporate capacity.

Over the years I have been a conference participant, speaker, organizer, and sponsor both in Israel and worldwide. The Israeli market is a tough one since Israelis are not easily persuaded to pay for knowledge – evident from their unwillingness to pay for research, consultation services, etc. But conferences can be valuable. More

I’m happy to announce that we’ve teamed up with Marketo as our marketing automation solution for companies selling to Enterprise buyers.

Selling to Enterprises requires an omnichannel, multi-touchpoint approach. Unlike selling to small businesses, or selling simple and cheap products, enterprise sales are complex, with a long sales cycle that combines online and offline activities. They are based on multiple tactics, both inbound and outbound.

Marketing automation is a fundamental element in every B2B marketing technology stack. Next to CRM, it is probably the most important tool for marketers to create smart, scalable, personalized marketing programs. More

Creating data driven organizations is tough. It is not only about technology, dashboards and budgets. It’s about changing the way people work and make decisions, and convincing management to invest in it.

The new year is a time for reflection and looking towards the future. We hope the past year brought you growth personally and professionally, and want to wish you clarity in setting goals for the year to come. Shana tova!

World leading technology research and advisory firm Gartner influences the decision-making processes of IT and vendor companies globally. We recently interviewed Gartner Business Development Director, Nancy Shapira-Aronovic, to find out how Israeli companies can improve their exposure with this influential company. The interview centered on two important Gartner reports: Cool Vendor and Magic Quadrant. We discussed the differences between them and Gartner’s criteria for both Cool Vendor and Magic Quadrant status.More